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Hi,
So I look up that particular word. Niggardly. Yes. All well and good.
Stingy. Sure. Scandinavian origin, akin to the Latin word for incinerate,
blah blah blah.
No racial slurs so far.
But I keep looking through Webster's Ninth Collegiate Dictionary. And
Roget's II Thesaurus. There are some cool words that mean stingy.
'Parsimonious' is a great word. It just slips off the tongue in a
beautiful, silky way. 'Miser' is cool, too. From the Latin word for
miserable, connotes an unhappiness through hoarding wealth. 'Penurious'. A
terrific word. Love that 'yuh' sound.
But then I get to 'Scotch.' Which means, and I'm quoting here,
'characteristic of Scotland, the Scotch, or Scots. Inclined to frugality.'
This is in the dictionary! It's in Roget's Thesaurus, too!
People from Scotland, or with a Scottish heritage are roundly judged
'frugal'. Which means cheap, which means miserly, which means penurious,
and so on! In the dictionary!
There are other races and creeds who are stereotypically seen as frugal
and/or cheap. So I flip through looking for a reference to these races and
creeds. There is no hint of anything. No other group of people are so
defined. Not one. Why have the Scots been singled out?
Frankly, it is an outrage.
Though, arguably, Grandpa MacDonald threw around nickels like man-hole
covers. And you gotta be a mighty fine waitron to get a 15 percent tip
from me. But I see no reason to put it in a dictionary. Or a thesaurus.
Alexander Graham MacDonald
alexander -dot- macdonald -at- abnamro -dot- com
twilson -at- comtech -dot- com -dot- au on 04/29/99 12:51:00 AM
To: TECHWR-L -at- listserv -dot- okstate -dot- edu
cc: (bcc: Alexander MacDonald/US/ABNAMRO/NL)
Subject: Etymological origins of the word 'niggardly'
I would like to point out that the word 'niggardly' does not have (and has
never
had) the connotations Jamela Jasper ascribes to it.
The word means 'stingy or parsimonious' and is scandinavian in origin.
If you don't believe me, check your dictionaries.
So Pamela ... if you hear the word in future, please try to remain calm -
it is
not a racial slur.
Tim Wilson
Technical Writer
Com Tech Communications
Melbourne, Australia
